New Approaches for Treating Neurological Diseases

The Section for Translational Neuroscience focuses on developing new approaches for investigating and treating neurological disease, primarily using the tools of physiology and imaging coupled with cell and gene therapy. Our emphasis is on using these technologies to enable neural and glial cell replacement in the adult brain and spinal cord, as a means of both disease modeling and therapeutic repair. The principal groups in the Center include Dr. Goldman’s, whose division focuses on neural stem cell and glial progenitor biology and the translational applications thereof, and Dr. Nedergaard’s, whose division focuses on astrocytic physiology and pathology, as well as on cerebral blood flow and its glial regulation. Together, the labs are expanding the scope of glial biology, such that disorders long thought neuronal in nature are now being investigated as disorders principally of glial cells, including both astrocytes and oligodendrocytes as well as their progenitors.